~ Food, Life, Love

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Dear Meredyth,Thank you for your patience, I know that it has been a while since I’ve written to you but there are far less wifi hot spots in Kanye, Botswana. Today I lucked out though, I am currently sitting at the Kanye Public Library where the wifi is free, the shelves are empty, the tables full of kids skipping school, and everyone is staring at me (I’m pretty used to the last one but it is pretty obnoxious). I have been in Botswana for exactly one month today, it feels like years though. Those last few weeks of summer feel like memories from years back. I can hardly believe that your wedding was only months ago, the sister nights, going away parties, and tear filled good-byes were just over a month ago. Life as a Peace Corps Volunteer in training is crazy, scary, exciting, and boring all at once. Everyday is actually a new adventure, but the safari kind of African adventure, more like Lost in Translation, Meet the Parents, and a touch of Animal Farm (only because there are so many farm animals roaming around downtown). I don’t think I can count how many lessons or discoveries about myself have occurred in this time already but, lots of them, some are harder to deal with than others. For the sake of time (the school children are now approaching me in turn saying “one pula, one pula” which is Bots’ dollar) and because uploading photos on this internet connection is nearly impossible, I’ll share some of the highlights:1. Sometimes we eat awesome food here in Botswana. The traditional cuisine is delicious, nutritious and affordable. The house maid for my host family makes fresh Phaphata bread every Wednesday, the dough is simple and can be stuffed with meats, veggies, or cheese; it can be lightly fried or baked with a sprinkling of sugar, so good. Diklotho is another cheap favorite, it’s like a brean and grain soup but we spice it up and throw in carrots, onions, cumin and pepper. I know it’s just soup but the beans taste so fresh and they have an awesome crunchiness too. The most decadent of my favorite traditional foods it the minced lamb stew, it has a name is Setswana that has too many clicks in it for me to type or pronounce, this we make by boiling the lamb with spices and putting it in a huge wooden grinder to punch it til its tender.2. Sometimes the food sucks in Botswana. So there’s this other thing they eat all the time called Poridgee made from corn maize, cooked it’s the consistency of polenta, but it’s white, bland, and there’s always a softball size of it on my plate. The Batswana love this stuff, or really anything that is a starch. If poridgee is not taking over my plate then a mountain of rice or pasta takes it’s place. Also, the favorite sauces to pour over your starchy carbs loaded plate is ketchup or tangy mayonnaise. I have twice now eaten a bowl of rice with ketchup and mayo for dinner, not my favorite moments.3. The Botswana sun is beautiful and brutal. I run every other morning with my friend & fellow trainee Adam around the village. We meet up at 5:45am to run for about an hour. I know that sounds crazy but we got to bed here around 8:30pm so I wake up at 5:00am no matter what. Every run is rewarded with a sunset that I swear was more beautiful than the last but could not possibly be real. The sky is full of colors I never saw in nature before I came here. By 8:30am I am walking the 3km from my house to the training center the sun feels like a space heater on my head. Most days I wear my big floppy hat and carry my umbrella to help. I love the sun in Botswana but summer is just around the corner and I am actually scared that I will bake.4. Pula in Setswana means rain, but it is also the word used for the currency, like the dollar. Everyone in Botswana asks me for money, my host mom, the kids that follow me up and down the road, the owner of the public library, the old ladies that sit in their yard all day. I had begun to hate the word Pula, until Independence Day. The Batswana pray for rain every day and they pray a lot, every meeting, event, workshop or anything really is opened with prayer. Most times these prayers are the usual thanks and blessings, but on Independence Day the Batswana scream pray, and they scream “Pula! Pula! Pula!”. Or when a leader, chief, or poet says something exceptional they cry out “Pula!”The Batswana and I are still getting to know each other, I’m optimistic that the pointing and begging will end someday, but I plan on cheering “Pula!!” at least once a day for the next two years.Love you,Julia/ Neo (my Setswana name)

A Levi’s Jeans commercial that inspires you to live life (and yes, want their jeans). This one came from So Much To Come. And a video that will inspire you to do some of that living through really delicious food. I got it from Peas Are Sweet. Funny how these two inspiring videos also seem to sum up their interests so well. I miss them. And you, Julia.

Today we went for our second ever hike in Austin. Actually, it’s our second ever hike as a couple. But part of moving to this city was to kickstart ourselves into doing. Something about Northern Virginia always made me feel like the hassle was too great and the reward too small. But now we’ve undertaken this crazy flight to another part of the country in order to achieve dreams and it’s been a moderate success so far so why not continue on, knocking down hurdles to life in all sorts of directions. We’re trying to be more active and I’ve decided that hiking is one of those ways we should do it. A blogger I read on occasion, and am always inspired by, MightyGirl, talked about her aversion to working out and my reaction was exactly! Why haven’t I been able to verbalize it like that? She said:

Now. Say you’re hurting and feeling fat. OK! Let’s put on some shorts and go somewhere public. Great. Are there lots of men here? Perfect. Now do something that makes you sweat. You’re all sweaty? Now stop, lay down on the floor, and contort yourself in ways so lewd you would blush to adopt similar positions while having actual intercourse. Great, great. See how every man in the room is openly gawking at you? Ignore that.

I’d add a few other things, but that sums up how I feel about going to a gym. I’ve never been what you would call “athletic”. I never got picked first for games and I didn’t care. When I was 7 I played soccer and accidentally scored the first goal of the season at one of our games. I didn’t even know what happened until my dad picked me up cheering over it. When we played softball in school I was more concerned with swiping at the cloud of gnats that took kamikaze dives at my eyes than what was happening in the infield (also, I was concerned with getting hit when a ground ball came at me). During recess most of the kids played soccer. Me and my friends walked around the schoolyard. Or sat under trees. Sweating always seemed too messy.

Basically, working out doesn’t fit into my image of myself. I feel like there are So. Many. More. ENJOYABLE things to do in life. That is basically my workout dogma. Rewards in the future don’t do much for me. I rationalize that I don’t really need it in the first place so why bother working toward it, if the present is so uncomfortable. My default setting is epicurean. The philosopher Epicurus believed that pleasure is the greatest good. But the way to attain pleasure was to live modestly and to gain knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of one’s desires. This leads one to attain a state of tranquility and an absence of bodily pain We typically categorize epicureanism as a form of hedonism, but only because it declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good, and its advocacy of a simple life make it different from our general preconceptions about hedonism.

I do, however, like being outdoors. I do like the challenge of getting up a mountain, or the inspiration of seeing new sights and the beauty of how our physical world is changed by such small forces like wind and water over long periods of time. What? Geology was the only science I excelled at.

Therefore, hiking is one way to trick my mind into doing something good for my body. I’ve discovered that if my mind thinks it’s interesting, and can be occupied, I can do it. Therefore, activities where I can achieve a sense of tranquility with a moderate amount of physical discomfort works best for me. Things like yoga, walking, hiking, or swimming seem to fit into this category well and I intend to start incorporating them into my life.

So here are some pictures of our hike, which was kinda the whole point of this post in the first place. But then I got philosophic. Sorry!

This is a statue of a pioneer woman outside the State Capitol of Texas. We saw it yesterday and I've been thinking about it for a while. I joke about our pioneer adventure but am slowly realizing just how real that is, and what a poor example of a pioneer woman I make.

We are in our extended stay hotel in Austin. We have little money for things other than rent and deposits and U-Haul trucks so we find free things to do that will educate us about our new home town, like visiting Zilker Park to find out what people do outdoors in Austin, or exploring the state capitol, which is like the one in Washington, only pinker. We eat PBandJs on white-like wheat bread and turkey with cheese, or in Ian’s case roast beef, salami and cheese on white bread. Icy Coke Zeros wash it down. Some mornings we even have sandwiches for breakfast.

We left home on Saturday and shed tears as we drove off, leaving our roommate Jay and Del Ray behind us. You’ll understand what I mean soon, as you realize that the familiar world around you will soon be gone, and everything in front of you is new and unfamiliar. It’s exciting and frightening at the same time.

We first drove to see family and everything felt normal, like we were just on a long road trip. We held Paige when she woke up happy and smiling at 1 a.m. and listened to Luke chat incoherently the next morning; we spun around in Robby’s go-cart and then the Model A; we sat through a black out with Ian’s parents and went out to a bar with one of his oldest friends. Then, we departed from everything we know and continued to Texas. It rained heavily when we arrived in Birmingham where Ian’s parents have been living, rained all night and halfway through Mississippi, then it got gorgeous. We stopped in a town called Chunky to use the bathroom and made jokes about the town of Chunky being in the fattest state in the country. Crossing the Mississippi River I promised to read Huckleberry Finn. I began to understand why this river was Mark Twain’s muse.

After about two days of eating fast food (including one day where we had Sonic by choice for lunch and then had it again for dinner because that was the only thing open where we stopped for the night) and constant driving we made it to Texas where we almost immediately went out for a drink at the Austin Draughthouse and met up with Steve and his girlfriend. Don’t confuse the Draughthouse with the Alamo Draft House which is also awesome, but involves movies and food and beer, whereas the Draughthouse just involves lots of beer.

Ever since then we’ve been hanging out in Austin, apartment searching and exploring.

Past Posts This Month

Past Posts This Month

Who We Are

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-season'd showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found;
Now proud as an enjoyer and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure,
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then better'd that the world may see my pleasure;
Sometime all full with feasting on your sight
And by and by clean starved for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight,
Save what is had or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.